Welsh Liberal Democrats

‘Welsh government is failing patients and staff’ – Kirsty Williams

January 12, 2012 2:47 PM

Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Kirsty Williams, has spoken of her disappointment regarding patient waiting times in Wales.

By the end of November, a total of 386,977 patients were waiting for the start of their treatment. Of those patients waiting for treatment, 23,329 patients had been waiting between 26 and 36 weeks, and 7,629 had been waiting more than 36 weeks.

The Welsh government's target is for 95% of a patients to be waiting less than 26 weeks and 100% of patients to be treated within a maximum of 36 weeks. Both of these targets were yet again missed.

Kirsty Williams AM said:

"The time spent waiting for the start of treatment is a worrying, stressful and uncomfortable time for any patient. Reducing these long waiting periods has to be an important priority for this Welsh government.

"The number of patients waiting to start treatment has been generally increasing over the last 13 months. Only last month the First Minister spoke of how proud he was of his party's record on the NHS. The First Minister needs to take his head out of the sand, how can he be proud of an NHS that spends more per head on our health service than in England, but delivers an inferior service?

"Sir Mansel Aylward, a senior advisor to the NHS, recently spoke of how he was 'depressed and disappointed' at the limited progress of change the health service had achieved over the last few years. The Welsh Labour government is failing patients and NHS staff, but still remains in denial over its continuing record of failure."